It is well known to decorate pines or fir trees at Christmas time as a part of the Holiday celebration. Traditionally, such trees are "live" trees, having been cut at the trunk, thereafter being designated as "cut" trees. Presently, it has also been known to use artificial trees, fabricated to replicate a live or cut tree. While live or cut trees are generally preferred aesthetically, artificial trees have become increasingly popular due to safety considerations and ease of assembly.
Cut trees must be secured in a stand or base having sufficient breadth to stabilize the tree extending thereabove. Typically, the stand also requires a cavity for receiving a reservoir of water therein to replenish liquid lost by the tree through evaporation. The water transfers to the tree trunk received within the water reservoir by means of absorption or osmosis. Such reservoir of water is necessary to keep the tree looking alive, allowing it to maintain its needles, while reducing its susceptibility to fire.
Prior stands have typically provided a small recepcable for water maintained by four legs extending therefrom and orthogonal to each other. Positioned above the water receptacle is a ring having three or more threaded spikes passing therethrough for engaging the tree trunk, thereby securing it in a specific position or orientation. Such prior tree stands have been difficult to use. They require the user to access the tree from various directions at the base thereof in order to threadedly engage the spikes with the trunk. The implementation of such a stand generally requires two individuals, a first holding the tree in a desired alignment, while the second moves about under the tree securing the trunk with the spikes. Such spikes often split the trunk, or in any event introduce large holes into the trunk making resetting or realigning of the tree within the stand a most difficult proposition. Further, the threaded spikes often strip within the collar and are subject to loss or misplacement. The bases of such prior art stands are typically of a small mass, a result of a small water supply therein, thus affording little stability to the tree assembly having a great mass extending thereabove.